DIY Star Wars Shirts

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I love making nerdy shirts, but these DIY Star Wars Shirts might be my favorites!

Hi, Nerds! If you’ve been following along here or on our Facebook page, you know that we – The Love Nerds – are super excited about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. There are days where I actually feel like Bryan has talked about it and only it. We have speculated, made unofficial bets, made Wookie Cookies, and, of course, re-watched the blu rays. But today also feels a little weird because I’m actually sitting here at 6 in the morning writing this post for these totally awesome DIY Star Wars shirts and I have NOT seen the movie yet.

Bryan and I are midnight movie goers. This is a tradition we started back in college when we were just friends (maybe I need to do a post about that story soon … but I digress). It was quite the expedition for us, too, going to school and living in a really small town. All of us would pile into multiple cars and make the 20-30 minute drive to the nearest city with big movie theaters. We would always see more Cornellians in the theater and the excitement and comradery was always special. There was one time that a dear friend of ours led the entire theater in a sing-a-long as we waited for what I believe was either X-Men Last Stand or one of the Harry Potters.

Midnight movies is still a tradition we have continued. Sometimes we go with Bryan’s staff and building as a program, sometimes we rope a couple friends into it or sometimes it is just The Love Nerds. We may not know as many people in the theater anymore, but the comradery is still there. The excitement is still there and so unique to those dedicated groups of early movie goers. It is something I hope we keep, this little tradition of ours, especially because it was a tradition rooted in our friendship and common nerdy interested. Of course, now that they are releasing movies earlier and earlier on Thursday, maybe our tradition will shift and we will be the 8pm movie goers – which does not sound as cool.

So why aren’t we? I guess there should be a point for this long look into our lives. We are at a family wedding this weekend and when the bride and groom asks if you want to go to a morning show on Friday to see Star Wars with them, you say yes! It will be a very fun way to kick off the wedding festivities. Now … the the shirts!

i have made a lot of DIY shirts for this blog. It is one of my favorite nerdy craft options as gifts and for movie/tv premiers. With a name like The Love Nerds, it should be pretty clear I wave the nerd flag proudly. My Silhouette Cameo let’s make all of them easily because I can import free designs or designs I have purchased on Etsy like the Luke Skywalker shirt here or I can purchase designs straight from Silhouette to use. It is my most used craft tool! For these shirts, I decided to finally try Heat Transfer Vinyl instead of making a stencil to paint the design on. I am in love so you should all expect more soon.

HEAT TRANSFER TUTORIAL

Using the Heat Transfer Vinyl is easy and the box comes with instructions for you as well. Here are the important steps:

When you create the design on Silhouette Studio and are ready to cut, you need to mirror the image. This is important if you want to be able to read anything on the shirt. Also, make sure you select HEAT TRANSFER VINYL on your media options.

You will just load the media without a cutting mat, so make sure you select that option in Silhouette Studio under your mat menu/button. You will want shiny side down.

After the design is cut, carefully peal away the extra. I use my little hook to make this process easier.

Line up your design on the shirt where you want it (shiny side up), put a thin cloth over it (I use a thin tea towel), and use a hot iron to heat the vinyl and transfer it over. Carefully iron every part of the design multiple times. Test by pealing up the plastic: if the vinyl stays down everywhere without pulling, you are good. If not, keep ironing.

Note: I was not successful with my silver glitter decal, which makes me sad because it was my shirt and I love that Jedi symbol. I will not let it defeat me though and will be making more attempts with the glitter vinyl. The plain vinyl worked like a charm though!

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Comments

My little nephew loves Star Wars and I really want to get him a fun Star Wars shirt for May the Fourth. I liked that shirt that has the Stromtropper on it. I think he would really like that. I hope I can find one like it.